‘The Kids Are United’ song is accompanied by a video made by hundreds of children in their school ‘bubbles’ and has been released to coincide with Odd Socks Day for Anti-Bullying Week (starting Monday 16 November). Odd Socks Day encourages everyone to wear odd socks to school or work and celebrate what makes us all unique.
The theme of the week, which is organised by the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), is ‘United Against Bullying’.
Andy Day and his Odd Socks band will be sharing their song and discussing bullying in an online assembly to schools across the country.
A poll of 2,000 11- to 16-year-olds, commissioned by the ABA, suggests that Covid-19 has affected how bullying takes place, with rising numbers of children reporting incidents online or in their communities compared to a similar survey last year, and fewer children saying they had been bullied in school, likely due to school closures.
Of those who reported being bullied recently, 38 per cent said it had taken place online, a rise from 29 per cent in a pre-Covid survey conducted in 2019. There was a similar rise in reports of bullying in the community: with 16 per cent of children who experienced bullying saying it had happened in their community, compared to 9 per cent last year.
The majority of children (65 per cent) stressed that having lots of good friends helped protect them from being bullied. However, the number of children reporting they had more than one good friend fell by four percentage points, from 91 per cent before coronavirus to 86.5 per cent in October 2020.
Martha Evans, director of the ABA, said, ‘It’s clear that bullying remains a significant problem for many children across the country, and we know that these experiences can have a lasting impact well into adulthood.
‘But this year we have witnessed the power that people can have when they unite to tackle a common challenge. If we are serious about reducing bullying, we have to harness that energy and work together. Be it online, in the community or in school, we all have a part to play and its time we came together, friends and family, classmates and colleagues, and unite against bullying.’
Andy Day added, ‘Because of the pandemic, kids have missed out on so many of the things that they love. Each and every child will have a story to tell about the different ways it has affected them. Now they are back at school, we are all responsible for equipping children with the simple message that we are all different, and that’s a good thing!’
- Anti-Bullying Week 2020 runs from 16-20 November.
- Find out more here and get involved on social media via @ABAonline #AntiBullyingWeek #UnitedAgainstBullying #OddSocksDay
